Law of the Sea now a "priority" for Obama Administration

It's not often that confirmation hearings get me excited, but I can't get over how great it was to hear a cabinet nominee talk about the importance of passing The Law of the Sea Treaty. Yesterday, Secretary of State-nominee Hillary Clinton said the long-overdue passage of this treaty will be a priority if she's confirmed. Her comments were prompted by a question from Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

MURKOWSKI: Will ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty be a priority for you?

CLINTON: Yes, it will be, and it will be because it is long overdue, Senator. The Law of the Sea Treaty is supported by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, environmental, energy, and business interests. I have spoken with some of our -- our naval leaders, and they consider themselves to be somewhat disadvantaged by our not having become a party to the Law of the Sea. Our industrial interests, particularly with seabed mining, just shut up. I mean, there's nothing that they can do because there's no protocol that they can feel comfortable that gives them the opportunity to pursue commercial interests.

So, for all of those reasons -- and I mention it in conjunction with the Arctic because I think they go hand in hand -- we've got to figure out where our boundaries are. You know, if people start drilling in areas that are now ice free most of the year, and we don't know where they can and can't drill or whether we can, we're going to be disadvantaged. So I think that you will have a very receptive audience in our State Department and in our administration.

Also at the hearing, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator John Kerry, said he has already talked to the committee's Ranking Minority Member Senator Richard Luger about LOS, and Kerry indicated that the treaty could come up for consideration before the committee very soon. Twenty-six years after the treaty was concluded, and 14 years after it went into effect, the prospects are finally good that the U.S. will sign on. It's been a long hard battle, and it's not over yet. Contact your senators and urge them to support this treaty.